When AA Doesn't Work for You: Rational Steps to Quitting Alcohol

Everywhere we are bombarded with false statistics that are invented and propogated by the AA followers.The fact remains that the MOST sucessful people to quit their addictions do it on their own-please see the Harvard News Letter.Dr. Ellis' book can and does augment peoples ability to quit,for good,their self destuctive tendancies including substance abuse.Factual analysis of the why we become addicted are presented here in an easy to understand format.It is our irrational beliefs about ourselves and the world that lead to frustration,depression and addiction.I practise this philosophy daily in dealing with my husbands' cancer and my own patients illnesses.It calms me and helps me to deal with life on lifes terms and not the way it should be.If you rely on your ability to think to lead you through life then this book is a great way to help structure your thoughts into a benefical program not only for substance abuse but for accepting whatever life may throw at you at any moment.

Virtually everyone knows of AA and its efforts to address problem drinking -- it is the largest, most visible and most accessible group, and the group that most entering recovery will either gravitate towards or be directed to by the therapy community. Yet, AA, for all of its benefits, doesn't work as a program for everyone -- particularly for those who are not spiritually inclined (and don't want to have to become spiritually inclined in order to recover) or those who are more cognitively-oriented people. There are thankfully alternatives to AA available for those who seek them out, and the "RET" (rational-emotive therapy) approach founded by Dr. Ellis, and which is the foundation of the SMART Recovery approach to recovery, is well outlined in this easy-to-read, easy-to-understand book.The basic idea is very simple ... you are not powerless over alcohol as AA says but rather you are empowered, or exercising your power, every time you make a decision in life about anything, including the decision to drink. When you drink even in spite of the fact that your drinking is interfering with your life goals (as you define them) or causing you tangible problems (legal, financial, relationship, career, etc.), then you have a good sign that your decision-making process around drinking alcohol needs some examination. RET is a technique that helps the individual drill down into her cognitive processes and isolate the real mental issues underlying her decision to keep drinking under these circumstances. In particular, a lot of attention is paid to "stinking thinking", which in RET terms means underlying beliefs we may have about ourselves, the world around us and others that are irrational, self-defeating, and lead us to make the decision to drink. RET teaches the individual how to unearth these often hidden, reflexive beliefs, examine them, challenge them, and replace them with healthier, rational, self-helping beliefs, ones which will not lead one to make the irrational decision to problem drink. RET also teaches how to relate more healthily to life's frustrations and disappointments by placing them in perspective, not overblowing them, and developing a higher frustration tolerance over time ... in other words, how to deal more effectively with the frustrating things in life, in ourselves, and in others that may have led us in the past to decide to drink. In all, RET teaches the individual to be much more aware of what is going on inside themselves, to be much more in control of that interior situation, or at least be able to manage it and relate to it more effectively, and thereby to make better choices about how to act ---- rather than being largely unaware of what is happening interiorly, but nonetheless being subjected to what may be a somewhat or largely irrational set of interior beliefs, whether we are aware or not, and acting accordingly. In all, it is a wonderful approach, for some people. I don't believe that this approach is for everyon

If the 12-steps aren't working for you, this book might. You don't have to have a disease, you don't have to be powerless, you don't need a higher power, you don't need to "recover" for the rest of your life. This book will show you modern methods to use to attain recovery from drugs or alcohol.

This is easily one of the best books on addictions around. Ellis and his co-author lucidly describe the dynamics of abusive and self-destructive drinking in such a way that the individual's self-responsibility is maximized and the "addiction excuse" eliminated. While this approach often brings wails of protest from persons still committed to drinking as much as they want to while still "looking good" (at least to themselves), in the long run it is precisely the honesty of the Ellis approach which is the most effective means around to overcome abusive, self-defeating and suicidal drinking habits. Ellis also looks at issues relating to life without alcohol, and in his typical "take no prisoners" approach using the principles of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, shows how to overcome the most common "after the party's over" problems of the ex-abusive drinker. This book is a must read if you either drink destructively yourself, or interact with an abusive drinker